


21st Precinct

by imjustsecondhandnews



Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: Assassin Lauren, Detective Camila, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-17 00:01:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 5,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15448797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imjustsecondhandnews/pseuds/imjustsecondhandnews
Summary: Camila is an NYPD detective who's just a bit too clever and Lauren is the hitwoman hired to kill her.





	1. Lauren

Lauren sits in a stolen car outside one of the fanciest restaurants she’s ever seen. Her stomach growls and she’s almost tempted to go inside. But no- she’s got a mark. She’d made him several blocks ago and is now watching as he sits down for dinner with his wife, a dinner that probably costs more than Lauren’s apartment.

“God, stakeout work is boring as fuck.” She breathes out.

 

She flexes her leather gloved hands, finally feeling alive when her target exits the building and departs from his wife. Johnathan Grant, on the surface seems clean enough, but look deeper and he’s in bed with human smuggling also has a few domestic assault charges from that pretty wife of his. She’s confident no one will shed a tear for this monster. It’s showtime.

She waits just long enough to not be conspicuous before sliding from her borrowed sedan.

It raining, not heavily, just enough to be annoying to most people. But not to Lauren. The rain will make her job easier. Not that she needs help. She really great at her job. She prides herself on it actually.

Still though it’s nice that the sky is overcast and people will be paying even less attention to her than usual.

She walks quickly, all the while conscious of the handgun tucked into the back of her jeans that if all goes well she won’t have to use. Lauren’s never had to use it. Like she said she’s good at her job.

She hones in on her target and makes her move. She feigns bumping into him, grabbing him by the arms to steady herself. A well practiced maneuver. Maybe she should come up with something more exciting.

“Hey, watch it!” He shrugs her off. Typical New Yorker. Lauren rolls her eyes. Their interaction was brief, unmemorable, but it was enough for Lauren to inject him with a syringe of clear liquid. She’s not sure what, she never asks and doesn’t care.

It’ll take a few seconds to kick in. Just enough time to distance herself before-

 

“Oh my god.” “Call an ambulance!”

 

She can’t help the smirk that crosses her face. Another job well done.


	2. Camila

“Another one? That’s the fifth this week.”  
“I know, it’s crazy. Kinda cool though, right?”  
Camila’s eyes grow large. Five bodies drop on the streets -their streets- and her partner thinks it’s cool?

“I mean not like cool, but.” Dinah immediately backtracks at seeing Camila’s reaction. “Well I mean it is cool. Think about it, Cabello. All these people were extremely wealthy and rumored to be connected with a forced prostitution ring.”

“Yeah, Hansen, but think if this dude starts to go after innocent people. Sure, he’s taking the trash out now, but he’s a psychopath. He could take out a bunch of soccer moms next and we’d still have fuck all to go off of.”

Dinah looks severely less enthused, “Guess you’re right about that.” But she cheers up quickly, like she always does. She throws Camila the keys to their cruiser. “Come on, we’ve got a homicide.” They discuss the details of Johnathan Grant on their way. How he’d been murdered after an innocuous dinner with his wife.

Half a block has been taped off and a they’re the third car to arrive.

“What’ve got.” Dinah asks, walking right up the lead detective on the case, not caring that they were late and total rookies and should probably be trying to fade into the background. But no, Dinah has to live up to the stupid Hansen family name and was dead set on bringing Camila with her.

“Oh, look who finally decided to show up. Did you get your nails done, ladies?” Austin sneers at them.

“Quite Mahone!” Hernandez commands, then sends a small smile to Camila and Dinah. Camila can’t help but be smug as Austin pouts. After he tried unsuccessfully to get with her, he’d become obsessed with making her look terrible in front of superiors. Honestly, she was tempted to take it to internal affairs.

Despite her height, Hernandez makes for an imposing figure as she dictates to the small crowd of detectives surrounding her. “As I’m sure you all know we’ve had our fifth vic. Same M.O., body falls on the sidewalk, no trace of any substance but has an injection site.”

Camila tunes out the spiel, she’s heard it all before. She’s more concerned with the location. She’s been wracking her brain for days trying to figure out what all the scenes had in common. She wants to know where this person came from, where they we’re hiding in wait for their victim.

There are no benches directly in the line of sight of the restaurant where Grant was just before his murder. The shop across the street could be promising. She makes a mental note to acquire the surveillance footage. She’s about to turn her attention back to Hernandez, when she spots the ugliest car she thinks she’s ever seen. A brown sedan that looks like it’s from the nineties.

“Hey, where’s your head?” Dinah elbows her.  
“Nowhere.” She says, still preoccupied. “Does that look odd to you?” She points at the car.  
“What that light pole? Nah, I think that’s pretty normal.”  
“No jackass, the car. A clunker parked outside a place like that?”  
Dinah looks skeptical but shrugs, “It’s worth a shot.”

Camila thinks so too and she jets off to their cruiser to run the plates. She’s oblivious to the staring of her confused coworkers.

She can feel her heart race as she types in the combination of numbers and letters. This has to be something- it has to.

Camila stares at their laptop screen, hardly believing what she sees. The car had been reported stole only a few hours before the murder had been called in.

She meets Dinah’s eyes through the windshield and wonders if she looks as shocked as she feels. Dinah runs over too, and soon everyone is crowding around the computer to see what Camila had discovered.

“Nice work, Cabello.” The praise from Hernandez is light, but Camila knows what this means. She had gotten them their first real lead.

They have the location where the car was stolen and a ton of security footage in between, so it stands to reason that this dude is on camera somewhere. Back at the precinct, Camila feels like a hero from all the congratulations and high fives, but she knows this isn’t even close to over.


	3. Lauren

Lauren rises and stretches, fully prepared to make the most of her day off. She has her hot chocolate and a movie ready to go when she sees it. An envelope that’s been slid under her door.

She sets her mug down too hard and it spills over the sides. She pays it no mind as she takes the envelope and plucks the card from it. It’s for the birthday party of a Camila Cabello. She can’t quite remember why she knows that name.

The coded information in the card tells her a time and location under the guise of a fun surprise. Anyone reading this card would be none the wiser that an execution had been ordered.

Lauren’s more put out that her day off has been ruined than that she has to kill again. But she is curious why it must be done so quickly. This Camila Cabello must be making waves if she can’t wait until Monday.

She tosses the card in the trash having memorized all of the relevant data. At her closet, instead of agonizing over an outfit, she debates which method to use. How will she kill Camila Cabello? She trails a finger over her knife collection. It had been a long time. Too long since she’d had a little fun.

But the card said the party would be “low key” meaning she had to make this quiet. And that meant a boring syringe. She was running low, but someone would refill her stock soon. She was entirely creeped out the first time it happened. A woman snuck into her apartment with a brief case full of syringes, and Lauren had almost killed her before she explained.

 

Lauren sits on a blanket under a tree in Central Park. She even has an honest to God picnic basket. It’s empty, but still. She flicks through her phone, eyes silently on the look out from behind her sun glasses.

This was certainly an odd job. She’d never taken out a cop, although she wasn’t opposed to it. The intel she’d been provided accused Cabello of being in several bad shootings where innocent civilians had been killed, and that was a good enough reason for Lauren. She’d never cared much for police, so what was one less dirty pig?

She easily spots her target. She’s having lunch with a man. Lauren briefly wonders if it’s her boyfriend, before she remembers she’s not supposed to care. Not even supposed to think about that stuff.  
An entire hour and a half later, Camila is finally leaving. In her wait, Lauren has removed her leather jacket, tied her hair up, and begun fanning herself with a leaf. She certainly doesn’t look the part of put together, badass assassin. She doesn’t feel it either, she’s entirely off her game. A smarter person would have called it a day and started afresh tomorrow.

But Lauren soldiers on, syringe needle barely poking through the gaps her fingers and thumb on the plunger. She does her fake stumbling act, which really she should get an Emmy for because she never trips. But this time it’s different, instead of the person being caught unawares as Lauren grabs onto them, Camila catches Lauren just before she falls.

“You okay?” The girl sounds concerned. And in that moment Lauren realizes the person she’s tasked with killing is just a girl. Lauren reminds herself that Camila Cabello is a cold-blooded murder, someone who abuses their power. At least Lauren only kills other criminals. Lauren has some standards.

She’s staring wide eyed and dumb at her. She’s usually so good at thinking on her feet. It’s her thing in fact. But she can’t manage to string together a sentence or even hid the obvious needle. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Camila.

Lauren sees the realization dawning on her face and pulls away before Camila’s grip can tighten and cuffs are placed on her. She weaves through the crowd. This she can do. This doesn’t take any effort. Soon she’s lost in the sea of people that she easily forces to part for her, as Camila tries in vain to push her way through.

She’s still shaken even hours later in the darkness of her apartment, but she’s not been arrested. So, she has that to be thankful for.


	4. Camila

Camila doesn’t tell anyone about her encounter. No one except Dinah. She knows how ridiculous it would sound. She just so happened to make a discovery in the biggest case of her career and now she’s met the killer herself. Besides, a young woman? She would get laughed out of the room. The profile fit a white male thirties to forties.

She would have to solve this on her own. And whoever this girl was, she was highly connected. Probably being back by some terroristic foreign government.

 

The rapid pace of the murders stops, and Camila can’t help but think she’s the cause. She’s sure she had scared the hitwoman. The team thinks maybe the perpetrator has moved on, and so the case takes the back burner in favor of more current crimes.

But Camila finds herself watching her back everywhere she goes.

She cornered one night in an alleyway, and her thoughts jump to the girl. The girl’s usually on her mind these days anyway. She rolls her eyes when it’s just some guy with a switchblade trying to rob her. She easily swats the blade and calls it in.

She waits until two uniformed officers show up and from then she doesn’t care what happens to him, she’s too exhausted. The rest of her walk home is uneventful.

When she unlocks her front door, her dog doesn’t come running to her which she immediately finds discomforting. “Ake.” She says cautiously, fearing what will come next.

“Is that his name? I wasn’t sure what to call him.” The Spanish accent would be incomprehensible if Camila wasn’t fluent. She sees a dark figure sitting on her window sill, Ake loyally curled around her feet.

Suddenly the girl is charging her, and she just barely manages to pull her weapon. “Oh, detective. Have a little more faith in me.” Camila can practically feel the smirk in her words. “That won’t work, but it’s cute you tried.”

Camila’s confused. But pulls the trigger back on her service weapon that’s directly pointed into this sociopath’s chest and almost drops it in shock when she hears the click, signifying that it’s empty.

“You didn’t think I’d let you shoot me, did you?” The sultry voice sends chills down her spine.

Her hands are covering Camila’s on the gun, and Camila is powerless as she lets it be pulled away from her. Not like it’ll do any good now.

“Do you know why I’m gonna kill you, Camila Cabello?”

Camila should be terrified, but she’s already cheated death once. She figures the more she can keep her would-be killer talking, the better chance of survival she has. Besides, wouldn’t she have already killed Camila if she wanted to?

“Do you know why you were sent to kill me…” Camila trails off, of course she didn’t know her name.

“Aw, are you trying to be intimidating?” She presses Camila harder into the door. “It’s been over a month since I began in New York, don’t you have any leads?”

Camila makes a face, “You know we have leads. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

Camila’s genuine confusion makes the girl fumble, clearly she hadn’t been expecting that response.

“You have leads? On me?" The girl’s voice for the first time sounds deadly. It reminds Camila that she’s in the presence of a killer.

“I-uh- the car. Just the car that you used last time.”

“What?” She loosens her hold, enough that maybe Camila could escape if she just-

“Wait a second. If you didn’t know about the car thing, why do you want me dead?”

“Like you don’t know.” The girl scoffs.

“I swear I-”

The lights turn on in a flash and Camila is staring into the eyes of a picture of a young man. “Remember him? Salvador Romano. Seventeen years old. About to graduate high school, on his way to NYU on an academic scholarship. You shot him while his hands were up.” She drops the picture and produces another. Octavius Martin. Twenty-one. A new father. You were a part of a group of officers who held him down and caused his death.”

“That’s not- I would never do that.” Tears form in the corners of her eyes. She does remember those men, but she had no hand in either of their deaths.   
In the bright light, Camila gets a better look at her captor’s face. She’s beautiful, but Camila had already known that. Camila is struck by her eyes. She thinks she might not mind the fact that she has to die if she gets to look into them.

But then an ominous looking knife pops out and she really doesn’t want to die. “Wait, wait. Wait please.” She cringes and backs further into the door behind her. “I swear to you, I didn’t kill those men. Where are you getting your information from?”

That causes her to pause.

“Don’t you know?” Camila hounds her. Unbelievable, this bitch was gonna kill her and she didn’t even have the decency to check out the reason.

“Of course I know.” She sounds annoyed, but she puts the blade away, which Camila is ever thankful for. “I will be back for you Camila Cabello.”

At once she is at the window and making to climb down the fire escape. Ake barks at her as she leaves and she has the audacity to pause, one leg swung outside, and pet Ake behind the ears. She winks at Camila and then she’s gone.


	5. Lauren & Camila

It would be pitch black if not for the street lights as Lauren leaves the detective’s apartment. She feels light headed. Camila’s body pressed against hers had been intoxicating. But she had to focus.

Was her information really incorrect?

She had never questioned her all-knowing, mysterious envelopes. But maybe she should.

Lauren’s not the brains of the operation but she’s certainly no slouch. And a few minutes research reveals the police shootings in question had actually taken place in a completely different district and by officers with no relation to Camila.

It makes sense when she thinks of Camila’s reaction. She had been fine, almost playful in her banter with Lauren, until Lauren had accused her.

Lauren’s sleep is restless that night. How many innocent people had she killed? She resolves to get to the bottom of it, even if gets her a bullet to the head.

-

“You were right.”

Camila jumps, hand coming to her chest. “You have got to stop that. Can you at least call first?”

The girl smirks at her, “Detective, are you flirting with me?”

“You wish.” She slings her coat on the couch and stands directly in front of her intruder. “I want your name.”

She makes a tsk sound. “That’s hardly the way to ask out a lady.” She even wags a finger at Camila.

Camila draws her weapon, “I want your name now.”

She does the infuriating smirk that Camila is becoming familiar with, “You won’t shoot me, Camila. I did my own research this time. You’re not a killer.”

“You’re right. I’m not.” Camila hits her as hard as she can with her gun. It brings the bigger girl to the floor, where Camila is able to straddle her and pin her arms above her head.

“At least buy me dinner first.” She groans out. Camila’s impressed she can still be so snarky with blood pouring from her nose.

“I will buy you dinner if you tell me your name.” Camila subconsciously presses her hips a bit harder into the girl underneath her. She hadn’t been completely off base about Camila being attracted to her.

“I am Lauren Jauregui, and I want to help you.”

“Help me? How could you help me? And why would you want to?” She sits back, allowing Lauren the use of her hands once more. They immediately cradle her nose.

“Because you are innocent and I almost killed you. That was my condition when I accepted my position: I would never hurt good people.”

“What is your position?”

“Do you think you could let me up? We can chat over the dinner you owe me.”


	6. Camila & Lauren

Against her better judgment, Camila lets Lauren up, even lets her sit on the couch and pet her dog as she orders take out. Camila makes a choked noise when she turns around. Lauren has removed her shirt and is holding it to her bloody nose, leaving her in a bra and leather jacket.

“Do you like what you see, Detective?”

“No, I don’t.” Camila says authoritatively, not like how Lauren is watching Camila watch her.

Lauren smiles anyway. “I brought this to show you.” She produces the birthday card she had trashed. “These are how I get my marks. Sometimes they come with a file or picture, sometimes they don’t.”

Camila examines it, fighting an eye roll when Lauren purposefully brushes their fingertips. Even more irritated at herself for enjoying it.

“Who gave you this?” Camila sits next to her. She passes the card back hastily when she sees her name neatly printed. “This is how you knew where I was that day.”

“Yes.” Lauren confirms.

“If you truly want to help, then you have to tell me everything you know.” Camila places a comforting hand on Lauren’s. She knows Lauren could probably kill her in minutes, but she can’t help but trust her.

“There’s also this.” Lauren offers a thumb drive from her pocket. “This is where I got the bad intel about you. Maybe one of your detective friends can trace it.”

-

“A few years ago I was deported back to Cuba, along with the rest of my family.” Lauren starts out, looking more at their food than at Camila. “I was in a prison there for two years. I got a birthday card similar to that one, only its coded language told me how to escape.”

She takes in Camila’s shocked face. “I was imprisoned unjustly, if that’s what you’re worried about. I promise not to hurt you.”

“I believe you. I do, but you realize how insane this all is right?”

Lauren nods, she can see why Camila makes such a great detective and why someone would want to kill her. “The card led me to a stash of half a million dollars, and with that we were able to come back to America. From then on I got weekly cards, until last week when I got two. That is all I know.”

“That’s good Lauren. I can work with that. But you only got two? There were five of these murders, six if you count the attempt on me.”  
“There must be more like me then.” Lauren says simply like that isn’t terrifying to think about.

 

Lauren had convinced Camila that she needed to stay the night with her under the guise of needing protection. Not that it took much for Camila to agree.

They’re both on their sides facing each other when Lauren leans forward and presses a slow kiss to Camila’s lips.

“Lauren, I-”  
“Come on, you’re telling me you haven’t thought about it.”

The inner turmoil must be easily read on her face, because Lauren pulls back. “It’s okay, Camz. If you’re not interested I understand.”

The words have barely left Lauren’s mouth before Camila is straddling her once more, but this time in a completely different context. The only fight now is one for dominance as Lauren roughly flips them over. She slips a knee in between Camila’s thighs and reconnects their lips with a force that shocks the girl underneath her.


	7. Camila

Lauren is gone when she wakes up and wants to punch herself for being surprised. She had sex with someone who tried to kill her. She should be lucky she’s not dead.

She finds a note next to the hooks where she keeps her keys and Ake’s leash. Sorry had to run. Don’t want to lead them to you. I will see you soon. x Lauren

The note makes her happier than it should. A thrill goes through her at the idea that Lauren hadn’t wanted to leave her but felt she had to for Camila’s safety.

At the precinct, Camila inserts the drive Lauren had given her into her desktop. Immediately files pop up bearing odd serial numbers. She curses herself for not getting Lauren’s number. How was she supposed to make sense of this shit?

“Cabello. You were MIA last night, what’s up?” Dinah walks in fashionably late and claims her seat across from Camila.

“Oh, nothing. You know…” Her voice catches in her throat and she pointedly looks back to her computer.

“No actually I don’t know.” Dinah kinks her eyebrow up and crosses the floor. “Holy shit. That’s some serious encryption. Why do you have that?”  
“Would you keep your big ass mouth shut?” Camila shushes her harshly. She hesitates, “A CI gave it to me.” She lowers her voice again, “It’s related to the syringe thing.”

Dinah’s eyes go wide and she opens her mouth to say something. Camila quickly rises from her seat and covers the words with the palm of her hand. “Listen this whole thing goes way deeper than any of us know.”

Dinah just stares and Camila tugs her by the arm until they’re sitting alone in their squad car. “I believe that there is some sort of organization employing several hitmen to take out important political figures.”

Dinah looks, well she looks like she’d just heard an insane conspiracy theory from someone who looks more than a little rattled. “Cabello that makes perfect sense.”

“What? You, you believe me?” She says it mostly to herself, glad that Dinah isn’t about to report her or have her institutionalized.

“Of course. It’s brilliant, but who’s behind it all.” Dinah has that determined look on her face and Camila knows at once they’ll get through this and Lauren will be alright. “And how do you know this? Who’s your CI?”

Camila sighs, she’s gonna have to explain that her informant is one of the hitmen and had been contracted to kill her. She decides to leave out the part where they fucked.


	8. Lauren, Camila, & Dinah

Lauren knows from past experience that she has up to a week for a singular mark, but she still wakes up in Camila’s bed in a sweat wondering if she’s being watched. She stays a few minutes next to Camila before her paranoia gets the best of her.

She rushes around the bedroom quietly throwing on her clothes and pauses momentarily to stroke her thumb across Camila’s cheek. She hopes Camila won’t be too upset with her.

Ake lifts his head at the noise from the door shutting. She gives him a pat, scrawls out a note, and leaves before daylight.

It probably won’t be effective, but Lauren feels safer taking evasive maneuvers. She rides the subway all the way to Brooklyn, then takes four cabs only to hop on the subway again. She’s finally back home as the sun is just starting to rise. She’s relieved to find no one waiting for her and no new card.

Her body aches as she drags herself in the shower. She wonders what Camila is doing. How is she handling the information Lauren had shared? Did she regret last night? She’d be at work by now surely. Maybe she was searching the drive. Maybe she was getting an arrest warrant for Lauren.

She hopes not. If she ever gets to have a normal life again, she wants Camila to be a part of it.

 

She decides fuck it and goes to Camila’s apartment, this time through the front door and picks the lock. She brings pizza and a special treat for Ake and figures it’s best if she keeps the lights off to not be suspicious.

She’s laid out on the couch, Ake on top of her while she absentmindedly pets him, when Camila bursts through the door follow by a girl Lauren recognizes from her research as Camila’s partner.

“Wow, your assassin is hot.” Dinah says to Camila. Lauren’s appreciative that this girl seems to be on her side of things.

“Fuck, Lo. You really have to stop dropping by unannounced.” She doesn’t seem all that bothered though. “Anyways, it’s good you’re here. We might be close to something.”

Lauren sits up, quickly apologizes to Ake who grumbles at the disturbance, “Already?”

“Yep. Kind of a tech genius.” Dinah grins, wedging herself between Lauren and Camila on the couch. She sets her laptop on the coffee table and they continue their work.


	9. Dinah, Camila, & Lauren

“What. The. Fuck.” Dinah leans back, hands in her hair.  
Camila has a similar look on her face. “DJ, is that who I think it is?”  
Dinah doesn’t say anything as she nods. Dinah had found traces of instant message fragments between users brerobinson19 and themahone64austin. These two users had fabricated the reports about Camila being involved with criminal activity. 

During their brainstorming, they’d suspected that there might be a mole in the force, but never did they think it would come from their own precinct. Much less their unit. I mean Mahone was an asshole, but would he do this?

“Yeah, but let’s not get crazy. There have to be tons of Austin Mahones in the world.”  
“That’s the exact same user name as his work email.” Camila counters, now looking at Dinah 

“What the fuck is an Austin Mahone?” Lauren exclaims, not wanting to be left in the dark.

“He’s a coworker.” Camila reaches over Dinah and gives Lauren her hand. She then addresses Dinah, “But he’s a total fucking moron. There’s no way he’s smart enough to mastermind something like this.”

“Okay, so maybe he was pulled into the operation like Lauren was. Either way, we have to take this to Hernandez.”

“No!” Camila practically shouts.

Lauren and Dinah look at her in confusion. “Camz, why not?” She grips Camila’s hand tighter.

“If we turn this over, you’ll be found out.”

Lauren shakes her head. “I don’t care about that. The people I work for want you dead. If I have to get send back to Cuba or prison or wherever, it’s worth it.”

Dinah shakes her head, “Y’all are too fucking dramatic. We could get her immunity so fast. No offense Laur, but you’re not exactly the kingpin here. You’re actually kind of irrelevant, one of many, and you can help us bring down the whole thing. This case is unbreakable, but if we have an insider? It’ll be all over in a few weeks.” Dinah sits back once more, satisfied with herself. “Trust me, Hernandez will be offering you a deal before you even sit down to make a statement.”


	10. Camila

Camila and Dinah have Austin in an interrogation room with Hernandez observing through the glass. He crumbles at the first mention of his screen name being in connection with the forged data. It’s almost disappointing how quickly he gives it all up. Camila had been looking forward to grilling him.

In less than an hour’s time he’s sobbing into his hands that are cuffed to the table and has dropped the name of any person he thinks could be helpful. It ends up not being that many people, but it does include bombshell of Captain Cowell, who will certainly have more to say.

“You’re pathetic, Mahone.” Camila would almost believe his pity trap if she didn’t know Austin was likely directly involved in the hit on her life.

 

When Cowell is found in a safehouse, Dinah is the one who gets the satisfaction of dragging him out. His eyes are watery from the flash grenade, but he doesn’t weep like Mahone did, which Camila respects. He doesn’t rat out the higher up in the operation, but everyone’s confident he’ll talk after a few months behind bars. Cops don’t tend to do well there afterall.

 

Camila forces Lauren into hiding until her immunity is secured.

“Is it really finished?” Lauren asks from her comfortable place under Camila’s sheets. Yes she had been ‘hiding out’ in Camila apartment.

Camila smiles, Lauren can be so innocent. “How many people have you killed?” It dawns on her she’s never asked before.

“A bit personal. Not so many as others, forty-two, but please keep in mind I was an international assassin for, like, two years.” Lauren says it all casually and she pulls Camila into bed with her.

“I wounded someone once.” Camila allows herself to be pulled on top of Lauren and places her hands on Lauren’s stomach. “To answer you first question, no. It’s not finished yet.”

Lauren pouts and Camila wants to kiss it away. “Almost, baby.”

Lauren pulls Camila further into her, and Camila sees it for the deflection tactic it is. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“About what.” To someone less perceptive Lauren would sound ambivalent.

“Don’t be fucking coy, Laur. I know you’re not an unfeeling psychopath like I first thought. This has to be getting to you.”

All of a sudden Lauren is positive she’s gonna be sick, she’s hot all over. She stumbles out of bed, ignoring Camila’s calls.

Camila figures it’s best to leave Lauren alone for now but has to intervene when she hears sobbing from the living room.

Lauren is holding on to Ake, who’s doing his best cheer her up, licking the tears from her face. “Lauren.” Camila’s never been nurturing, that’s Sofi, but she sits beside her and lets her cry it all out.


	11. Lauren

Lauren adjusts back into society without too much trouble. She gets a job at the rundown record shop a few blocks from Camila’s apartment. She walks Ake. She makes dinner for Camila. It all feels too easy. She waits and waits, but the other shoe never drops.

She makes friends with Dinah, and the two of them introduce her to Ally, their superior officer, and her girlfriend Normani.

She reestablishes her connection with her family now that she’s not a danger to them. In fact, she life couldn’t get more perfect, until she finds an envelope by Camila’s door one morning. It’s a Christmas card. The Cabello family Christmas card. She steels herself before looking inside.

Dear Lauren,  
We thank you for all your support these past years. In light of our recent setbacks, which you surely know about, we must once again ask for your assistance. We will be having our annual Christmas dinner early this year to discuss family business. We look forward to seeing you on the 23rd at the usual diner.  
Warmest Regards,  
The Cabellos 

She shreds the card, but it won’t make a difference. The implication of the family on the card isn’t lost on her. She’ll take the meeting with her former employers’ or her girlfriend’s family will suffer the consequences. She surmises the ‘warmest regards’ line means burn in hell.

So she finds herself in a booth at a shitty diner that serves even shittier pizza. A slice is cooling on a dingy plate when a person takes the booth behind her.

“How’s your girlfriend?” The voice is smug.

“Don’t.” Lauren warns.

The voice laughs. “Darling, I couldn’t care less. That’s not why I’m here.”

“Yeah, well why are you here?” She takes a large bite of her pizza just to make sure she doesn’t mouth off and get herself in worse trouble.

“Your debt, of course. You haven’t finished paying it. Unfortunately, since our organization has been crippled by arrests we’re only at partial capacity. That means we’ll be requiring your services for a shorter period of time than anticipated. Don’t despair, miss Jauregui, this is good news for you.”

“I-” Lauren shakes her head, “No, I’m out. I haven’t done a job in months and it feels good.”

“Suit yourself.” Lauren hears the woman get up. A piece of paper is placed on her table. “I’m sure they will understand.”

It’s a drawing Sofi made of her family, a family that now includes Lauren, if the stick figure with curly black hair and green eyes is anything to go by. Fuck. That means this crazy bitch went to their house, was in Sofi’s room. She doesn’t want to think about what this woman was capable of.

“Wait.” Lauren calls to the woman. She can only see her back as she’s paused just past Lauren’s table.

“I knew you would come to your senses. We’ll be in touch.”

Her laugh as she’s walking away chills Lauren for a long time afterwards.


End file.
